Photo credit: 84 LUMBER
C.Acquiring the largest privately owned home improvement retailer in the United States is a big enough achievement for most people. But Joseph Hardy III was always looking for new challenges, as he has shown throughout his career.
Hardy died on Saturday, his 100th birthday.
“The Hardy family has lost a patriarchal and all-around great man,” his family said in a statement. His family is proud that he has achieved this final achievement.”
In 1957 Hardy launched 84 Lumber, a novel cash-and-carry business aimed at professional contractors and builders. His empire at one point grew to include over 500 of his stores in 38 states. That success put Hardy and his daughter Maggie Hardy Magelko, who now runs the company, on Forbes magazine’s list of the richest people.
Thirty years after founding 84 Lumber, Hardy purchased 2,000 acres of land near Farmington in Fayette County and began developing Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa. Today, the resort has a casino, two golf courses, a driving range, ski slopes, a five-diamond hotel, five-star restaurants, bars, and a spa.
In 2003, Hardy was elected to the Fayette County Commissioner. He donated his commissioner’s salary to a food bank and spent thousands of dollars of his own money on various development projects in Uniontown. He has sought re-election, complaining that he is frustrated by the government’s slow pace.
Hardy’s personal life also made headlines. He divorced his wife Dorothy after 51 years of marriage and married his secretary Debra his Marie, who was 26 at the time. They divorced him in 1977. Shortly after that divorce, he married his 22-year-old Christine his Georgie. They met when she was doing his nails while working at Nemacolin Woodlands Spa. In 2009, he married Rebecca Davis, who was 51 at the time. That marriage also did not last, and Hardy married Jodi Santella Williams a few years earlier.
Hardy has a wife and eight children. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
